I find it amazing that veteran players will defend this new itens. *sighs*
Cant you see that they ruined a great game?
Well... at least... UO still seems to be a good place to RP in... I just have to find a nice community, if there are any left.
Actually we vets could claim that they "ruined" it years ago, so now we just make the best of what we get and roll with whatever changes they make while hoping that each expansion isn't the final nail in the coffin. If the game is ruined, it certianly wasn't ruined because of faction items.
Faction items were actually a positive step in the direction of all those who claimed that pvp is pointless due to over-powering items and the inability to afford them. Now you have the items. Now you can build the suits to compete.
Honestly, I really see no reason to NOT be factions. If you dont go to felucca, it doesn't matter. I can only see it being trouble for crafters.
If I were to change anything, I would make it so that stat-loss doesn't affect crafting skills so that would put and end to the argument about protecting crafters. To me it doesn't matter though.